Magilton’s drawing positives

Jim Magilton felt that a draw was a fair outcome in last night’s Sports Direct Premiership clash with Linfield.

The Reds threatened through Kris Lowe and Ryan Curran during a positive second-half performance that saw the hosts exert greater authority over proceedings than they had during an unpredictable opening 45 minutes.

“I think the first-half was to-ing and fro-ing a little bit, I just wanted a little bit more control in the game and I felt we did that,” said Magilton.

“We’re always very conscious of the outstanding players that Linfield have and we know that they carry a real attacking threat. I thought we defended for our lives at times and did great, but there’s lots to build on.

“Joe (Gormley) and Ryan were fantastic in terms of their work ethic. There were things going across the box one of them maybe could have got on the end of but if we keep creating chances for these guys, they’ll score goals.

“All the subs came on and made a contribution, which is great. There’s competition for places, which is what we want, and I feel we’ve a real upbeat tempo to the quality in training, with a competitive edge, which is very important.

“I thought there was lots of quality in the game, which is important because we’re trying to drive quality in the game and there were lots of good players on the pitch who played really well.

“Kris Lowe’s had a great chance at the start of the second-half and, in tight games like that, those sorts of chances have got to be taken, but I thought in the second-half, we played really well, passed the ball really well and were building momentum.

“I think it was a fair result in the end.”